


with a twist

by belletrist



Series: gifts [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Crack, Crazy Harry Potter, Department of Mysteries, Gen, Insane Harry Potter, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Red String of Fate, Soulmates, Time Travel, tags will be added as story progresses, that horrible juxtaposition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belletrist/pseuds/belletrist
Summary: Soulmate AU Prompt: Everyone has a small piece of red string attached to their finger, and if you follow it, it will lead to your soulmate. Harry is just confused to why his is tied to a time turner.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort
Series: gifts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440301
Comments: 24
Kudos: 230
Collections: Favorite works in process





	1. round one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wulcanbiology](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wulcanbiology/gifts).



> this is the result of a series of interactive livewrites on @wulcanbiology's private discord server. 
> 
> the title is drawn from the fact that i know where this story is going as much as y'all do. we are riding this rollercoaster blind, together. that being said, please check the tags more than once; i will update the tags as the story progresses, and the warnings if need be.
> 
> i will post the polls and results at the start of every update, in case anyone is curious, but also to help me keep track.

The Department of Mysteries stretched and warped around Harry like space traveled in a dream, as he ran down its hallways like a boy possessed. And maybe he was—possessed, that is—possessed by Voldemort, possessed by the visions he’d seen, possessed by fear.

He ran.

Hermione and Ron and the others shouted back and forth from somewhere behind him. The walls and their doorways shifted around him, making their voices distort and echo. They were far away from him now. He’d lost them.

_Good._

As it was fated to be, he had thought. Fated since Voldemort had hunted Harry like prey and Harry had stood up to the predator; fated as much as fate could be made by two people, rather than the divine weavings of the universe.

Just thinking of it, he glanced down at his left ring finger. The softly glowing red thread, his heartstring, tying him to his destined other, laid straight out in front of him, a reassuringly familiar beacon unto this strange and terrifying night.

He ran.

His red string of fate pulsed gently as the Department of Mysteries rearranged itself around him, the path to where he was going laying itself out before him as he ran down its corridors. Was it always this way? he wondered. Or was this some strange quirk of this place, to confuse those who are not meant to be here?

But Harry was meant to be here. Even if it was not how others understood.

His heartstring pulsed once, and a door settled in front of Harry. He stopped.

Uncertainly, he glanced around him. The Department of Mysteries, which had been twisting like some great slumbering beast just seconds prior, now lay still and dormant, as if whatever had plagued it had now let it be.

Well... never let it be said that Harry followed the Hogwarts motto.

He pushed the door open—and gasped.

The room was filled with timeturners.

Slowly, carefully, Harry walked into the room, head twisting this way and that as he took it all in, Hermione’s words echoing through his head: _“Terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time, Harry.”_

Well. He wasn’t going to meddle here. He had a Dark Lord to meet and confront and a godfather to rescue. Harry glanced once more around the room, and—paused.

His heartstring. It was pointing in a completely different direction than it had been when he walked through that door. That, as far as Harry could recall, had never happened before. Only when he traveled large distances did his red thread shift so dramatically; usually it seemed as if it was pointing to one inscrutable location, one direction instead of all the others, almost a true north.

(Harry knew his heartstring didn’t always point north, but, well, it was easy to romanticize the thread that tied you to your destined other. He learned to keep his thoughts to himself, however, after hearing one too many lectures from Hermione.)

Harry followed the line from the string on his left ring finger up to an object sitting innocuously on a shelf in the middle of the wall.

A time turner.

It looked to be strangely silvery in color, instead of the gold of the time turner Hermione had, and the other timeturners lining the shelves. Its hourglass was filled with a white sort of sand, looking almost translucent, and the etchings along its circles glowed softly blue in the gloom. A finely made metal chain, the same color as the timeturner itself, lay coiled around it like a cat curling its tail around its paws.

How strange.

Harry stepped to the side. His heartstring line adjusted sharply to continue to connect to the timeturner. He stepped to the other side. His line swung again.

Hesitantly, Harry reached out and grasped the chain attached to the timeturner. He winced, bracing himself for the blare of alarms—

Lifting the timeturner so it dangled in the air, Harry stared as it swayed from side to side, the thread attached to his left ring finger going unwaveringly to the device.

_A timeturner._

His red string of fate, his heartline, that was supposed to lead him to the person who would understand him, give him joy, give him peace... was attached to a _timeturner._

And something inside of Harry just—

_Snapped._

Distantly, Harry heard insane, hysterical laughter. The kind of laughter one laughed when one had their soul stolen from them. Even more distantly, Harry realized that this laughter was coming from him.

It felt like an eternity later when Harry caught his breath and came back to himself. It was likely only a minute or two. But he straightened up from where he had been bent in half laughing, and held the timeturner up so he could look at it more properly.

It was beautiful.

“ _Precious,_ ” Harry nearly hissed, looping the chain over his head and petting it as one would a cat’s tail, letting the hourglass of the timeturner rest next to his heart. “My beautiful little soulmate. Don’t worry—I won’t be separated from you again.” He ran his finger down the links of the chain; his lips curled into a twisted, broken smile.

“I’ll never let you go.”


	2. round two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Polls:**
> 
> **What happens next?**  
>  Harry uses the timeturner to go else... when. (4 votes)  
> Harry keeps the timeturner but does not use it. (1 vote)  
> The timeturner breaks. (1 vote)  
>  _Winner: Harry uses the timeturner to go else... when._
> 
> **...but how far back does Harry go?**  
>  Far (think: late Mauraders era, Harry finishes Hogwarts with his parents and their friends being his seniors). (2 votes)  
> Very far (think: Harry starts Hogwarts with Tom his senior or newly appointed DADA teacher). (10 votes)  
> Very, very far (think: Harry raises Tom). (0 votes)  
>  _Winner: Very far: Harry starts Hogwarts with Tom his senior or newly appointed DADA teacher._  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the percentage of voters who saw the option for "DADA teacher Tom Riddle" and immediately jumped on that roller coaster cart was astounding.

Harry turned in a circle, humming, running his fingers along the length of the necklace chain looped around his neck. He could almost imagine he heard the other timeturners in the room hum along with him. A wedding song! Well, of sorts. He chuckled to himself. He and his precious little soulmate had only just met; of course they wouldn’t be getting married _quite_ yet. 

Harry had to figure out how to get out of the Department of Mysteries first, of course. 

He hummed, tapping his fingers on the chain of his necklace, before blinking in realization and looking down at his chest in surprise. Oh! Perhaps his soulmate would lend him its powers! Though, he grimaced, timeturners only worked for _time_ , and not _place_... but maybe he could go back a bit before there was an imminent battle to be had and a godfather to be saved? Spend a week or so on a honeymoon of sorts with his fated and then come back, swoop in just in time to save the day, be the hero of the hour he always was, et and cetera? 

He liked the sound of that. 

He picked up the length of silvery chain down his chest, not removing it from his neck but holding it out in front of him so the timeturner pendant dangled closer to eye level with him, its glow shifting as it swung gently side to side. “What do you say about getting out of here, little soulmate?” he chirped. “I’ll give you a twist or two, let you choose how long we have for our honeymoon!”

The timeturner pulsed once, and then its aura flickered strangely, but not... ominously. Harry could just _tell_ , somehow. 

He thought that perhaps his soulmate had agreed with him, and was laughing. 

Harry grinned, and spun the timeturner. 

The room rippled around him; Harry swore he could almost _feel_ the flow of time reversing around him. Everything stayed the same, but yet everything was changing, changing, changing—

Harry had no clue how long the timeturner spun for. His little soulmate seemed to revolve slowly in its suspended state, the circular pieces of metal occasionally passing around its glowing center and giving the imitation of winking at him; streaks of movement Harry could only assume to be Unspeakables opened doors, closed doors, passed him, rearranged other parts of the room, opened and closed doors again. There was no light in the room, no window, no way to mark the passing of time but the slow revolving of his soulmate as it reversed the flow of fate and spun winking, winking, winking. 

Sudden and complete terror engulfed him. Harry grabbed at the timeturner, ceasing its movements, begging his soulmate to stop.

It stopped.

Time stopped, and then resumed normally. Harry dragged in a deep breath, feeling the air billow his lungs, feeling his lungs expand normally, feeling the /pressure/ of that changing, changing, changing lift off him like the weight of the world taken from his shoulders. Harry blinked around himself dumbly at the room. It had not changed. It had changed quite a bit.

Well, time travel sure could be disconcerting. Not that he would ever tell his little soulmate that, mind.

“Thank you,” Harry said to the timeturner. “And, sorry about that. I just,” he cradled it gently in his hands, drew in a ragged breath. “I got really scared all of a sudden.” 

The timeturner glimmered at him, a lighter shade of color. Harry hoped fervently that that meant his little soulmate understood, and forgave. 

He had such things so rarely in his life.

“Well then! I know it’s not quite where—or, well, _when_ you wanted to take me, little love, but I don’t think I can handle more time travel _right_ this moment,” Harry said apologetically. “I wasn’t made for time travel, not like you. I need to get a bit more grounded before going off again. Can we take a breather? Or—oh dear.” 

A piercing alarm shrieked through the room he was in. Harry winced, and reached to cover his ears. Merlin, even Walburga’s shrieking wasn’t this bad! 

“I believe we’re in a spot of trouble, little love.” Harry said blithely. “And since I can’t travel— _time_ travel any more right now, best we sort this out before anything else happens, yes?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feedback feeds the writing beast, as always. especially since what the discord wants is the hardest for me to write.


	3. round three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Poll:**
> 
> **Will Harry...**  
> ...escape from the Department of Mysteries and go on the run? (4 votes)  
> ...hang around and face the music? (6 votes)  
>  _Winner: Harry will hang around the Department of Mysteries and face the music._

Harry hummed a traditional dirge at a frighteningly cheery pace as the doors to the room full of timeturners burst open. Hooded figures swathed in flowy, obscuring robes poured in from both sides of the room—Unspeakables, if Harry had to guess. Harry twirled in place as they surrounded him. _My, such a large welcoming committee!_ “Hello!” he chirped cheerily, waving at the figures surrounding him. 

“Who are you and why are you here?” one of the figures demanded in a low voice.

Harry blinked, noticing that they all had their wands pointed at him. Well, that wasn’t very nice!

“I’m—” Harry started, then immediately bit his tongue, “hmm.” Would giving his real name out here cause irreversible damage to the timeline?

“You’re _hmm?_ ” Harry didn’t need to see the figure’s face to hear the sarcasm dripping from every syllable. 

The door behind the speaking figure banged open again, and a young woman with the craziest curls Harry had ever seen—and that was saying something, as Hermione was one of his best friends—burst into the room. “Where’s the time anomaly?!”

A pause fell over the room. Several hooded figures shifted as if to look at her.

Her eyes landed on Harry, and she gasped. “You!” she cried, pushing through the circle of Unspeakables surrounding him. Harry recoiled, taking a step back, but she bounded forward and grasped him by the shoulders, to the shocked inhalations of their watchers. “You’re going to be the subject of my thesis,” she breathed, her eyes shining.

“Um. Okay?”

  


* * *

  


Well. Harry watched two Unspeakables chain and lock the door to the time room. That was new. He watched as the chains glowed as the lock closed around them, and got the distinct impression that the bindings were highly magically reinforced. It seemed that the Unspeakables did not want him to have any sort of re-entry to the time room anytime soon. 

Harry hummed his dirge faster and cheerier, ignoring the anxiety quivering along his bones. His little soulmate thrummed reassuringly against his chest. 

The wild-haired Unspeakable lady, likely his savior from being a dissection specimen, turned to him. “In the interest of fostering our collaborative relationship, what should I call you? By which I mean not your real name, by the way. You shouldn’t give out your real name here.”

Harry blinked at her. Well, he had already guessed as much, but he couldn’t just offer up the chance to have some fun! “Why not?” he asked her, his eyes deceptively innocent, “my name isn’t anything special, it’s just—”

“No!” His savior lady pressed two fingers to his lips to shut him up. Harry smothered a giggle. “I just said not your real name!” Eying him to make sure he wouldn’t speak over her, she withdrew her hand. “You’re from the future. Your name is from the future. Anything from the future has to stay hidden from the past. Therefore, you need a new name.”

“Oh.” Harry put one hand to his cheek in faux innocence. “That makes sense.” 

But what sort of new name should he choose? He reached up to his chest to rub his little love’s pretty silvery chain. His little soulmate heated at his touch. The warmth was soothing, helping him to clear his head. A new name was welcome, of course; the perfect symbol of him starting a new life with his little soulmate. But choosing one was a different matter. Harry hummed a few more bars of his dirge, thinking. If he wanted to be /very/ silly, then he could go super pretentious—he could call himself Godric or Merlin!

Harry winced and whipped his hand away from his little soulmate, who had given him a small sting, as if scolding him. Okay, those were off the table. He didn’t want to call himself by a name his little love didn’t like. 

Refocusing, he looked up at his savior lady, who was staring at him with an unreadable expression that made her look too much like a cross between Luna and Professor Trelawney. “So?” she asked.

Harry blinked. “So what?” 

“What you’ll go by, while you’re here!”

“Oh.” Harry reached up to sheepishly pull his hair down over his scar. “Um.” 

He really had no idea.

The savior lady clucked her tongue. “You could try taking your original name, and changing it by a letter or syllable or so. That way if you slip up and introduce yourself by your future-name again,” here she eyed him dubiously, as if she wasn’t sure he was capable of not messing up like that, “you could pass it up as a childhood nickname.”

Harry tilted his head, considering. That actually was a smart idea. He hummed a few more bars of his funeral dirge; it helped him think. In that case...

“Harvey,” he said.

“Ooh, good choice!” his savior lady responded. “Old English, derived from the words for “iron” and “blazing.” A lovely description of how you fortuitously fell into my lap!” She paused. “Not literally, of course.”

Well, Harry didn’t know any of that; he just knew that Harvey was close enough to Harry that he could pass it off as a nickname if need-be. But he wasn’t about to tell her that. Instead, he smiled at her, a quirk of his eyebrow making it an almost-questioning expression. “I’m glad you like it.”

She grinned back at him. “It’s perfect,” she said. “Harvey.” She extended her hand. “You can call me Pandonna.” 

Harry took her hand in his. “Pandonna,” he said, his voice lowering to a purr, “I think we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

He took no small amount of glee in the fact that he made her flush.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback feeds the writing beast, as always.


End file.
